Inverkeithing & North Queensferry Through Time by Eric Simpson & George Robertson

Amberley's "Through Time" series offers a tried and tested formula
in which a locally based author, or in this case authors, put together a
collection of old photographs of a locality with their more modern counterparts
for comparison, together with informative captions telling the reader what he
or she is looking at, and, in many cases, explaining the significance of the
the place and view.

Inverkeithing & North Queensferry Through Time by Eric Simpson
& George Robertson applies this formula very effectively indeed. In part
this is because the images are well chosen to illustrate interesting aspects of
the two closely neighbouring settlements: and the modern photographs are nicely
matched to their older counterparts, sometimes showing exactly or nearly
exactly the same view and at other times taking a less restrictive approach
where this illustrates a point well. So for example the photograph of the paper
mill pipe band is accompanied by others showing the production process in 1993,
long before the mill ceased operations and subsequently fell into
disrepair.

But the main thing this fascinating book has going for it is that it
covers an area that is full of interest and variety.
Inverkeithing and
North Queensferry
are settlements with a long history that have changed significantly over time;
that have been home to major industries such as paper milling and ship
breaking; and which occupy a landscape whose very shape has been dramatically
changed by quarrying. And all that is before you come to the thing for which
this part of Fife is best known today,
as the northern landing point of the two - soon to be three - Forth Bridges,
which each resulted in a transport revolution and whose physical presence
dominates the area.

The real joy of this sort of book is that however well you think you
know a place, there are always surprises. A photograph of cars queuing for the
ferry across the River Forth in the 1950s led us to the sudden realisation that
the ferries had used the pier a few hundred yards to the west of the centre of
North Queensferry
and not the one in its heart. Obvious when you think about it: but it took this
book to make us think about it...